Yet Another Thing I Have in Common with Bono: Tax Policy

The British Observer newspaper interviewed the singer while on a trip to West Africa last week and grilled him on his tax decisions: “Was it not hypocrisy for you to try to hold the Irish government to account for its spending while going through fairly exhaustive efforts to avoid paying in to the Irish Exchequer yourself ?”

Bono responded that “at the heart of the Irish economy has always been the philosophy of tax competitiveness” which he said “has taken our country out of poverty.” Furthermore he said it had helped Ireland weather a deep post-2008 recession. “It has been a successful policy. On the cranky left that is very annoying, I can see that. But tax competitiveness is why Ireland has stayed afloat.”